news

First off, if you haven't tried out the PTR, I highly suggest you do so. It is an incredible resource for you to test out hero changes and new maps. Both are incredibly important if you are a heavy League player and your main is getting tweaked. It also saves you the embarrassment of making new map mistakes that cost you a win.

You Need a Phenomenal Pusher

With five different merc camps, three of which are the impalers, you need a specialist that knows how to push and how to push hard. Much like Cursed Hollow, your ability to take the shrines with little contest will rely heavily on your team's ability to know when and where to create distractions. I tried two games, one as Sylvanas and one as Valla. As Sylvanas, I was able to push fast and hard, giving my team total domination of the map. As Valla, we ended up losing because our specialist didn't do anything except stay in team fights.

You Need Area Damage

At the shrines, these little demon guys are going to be popping up in lots of little groups, making it ideal for Heroes with area damage abilities. Even if you don't manage to stay at the shrine for long periods of time, your ability to take out as many of those little groups as quickly as possible is what will make or break your ability to summon a portal demon. At the same time, you'll need at least one focused assassin that can take out enemy Heroes without inadvertently helping them get a few spawn kills here and there.

You Need to Be at the Shrines

Early game, this isn't really so much of a deal. In fact, it arguably is more prudent to simply stay in lane and push your butt off in order to gain map advantage for the later shrine activations. Just like Battlefield, it's the mid to late game objective grabs that will either help or hurt your chance of winning.

-DrmDestryr

Dear DrmDestryr,

What do you do when someone in your League game throws it with a bad Hero pick?

-SadPanda

Dear SadPanda,

It honestly depends on how high my stress levels are for that day. If my stress levels are high, I'll break down crying, completing my game through blurred vision because, goddamnit, I just wanted one win. If it's low, I just roll with the punches and play as best as I can. As for what you should do, well, there are a variety of tactics.

You Could Insult Them

One of the knee-jerk reactions I see a lot to non-meta picks *coughfirstpicksonyacough* is to start insulting the player outright. While I understand we have all seen sucky Sonyas, abhorrent Abathurs and ghastly Gazlowes, that doesn't mean this person will be bad. In fact, I dare say I've seen many more great non-meta picks out there than meta because those that don't go meta typically play Heroes they are damn good at, and since they aren't meta picks, there's really no way to counter them. So while you could insult them, don't knock 'em until they prove they suck.

You Could Choose Your Hero to Compliment Theirs

Instead of throwing a hissy fit, give some critical thought to what's been laid bare before you. With what you know about the current Hero chosen, who do they work best with? What weaknesses do you know your team will need to make up for? It's simple questions like that which give you the chance to make a really awesome, if not odd, team comp that blows the other team away. For this to work, though, it does require everyone to lay down their pride and, well, work together as a team.

You Could Choose to Learn

If it happens to be that the last pick is the one a**hole that decides to throw the entire game because of whatever petty reason, use this game as a learning period. See how long you can go without dying. See if you can increase your damage output or total heals. Instead of following the run-of-the-mill strategy, try to organize your team to take it on in a tactically different way. If there's not tank, keep everyone together and go gank Heroes running around alone to get a level advantage. Lure the other team into a more favorable fighting position. While you may not win, thinking differently forces you to really analyze what you're doing and how you're doing it—a critical part of Heroes I think we all forget from time to time.

-DrmDestryr

Ask DrmDestryr is your weekly Q&A/advice column for Heroes of the Storm. Have a question for DrmDestryr? E-mail her your mental musings at drmdestryr@gmail.com or send happy twoughts her way @DrmDestryr. Want to hang out? Check out the ITN PreShow with DrmDestryr! streamed weekly starting at 3 PM Pacific on Thursdays. If that's still not enough, come hang out for Monday Morning Murder where she tackles all forms of video game horror starting at 11 AM Pacific each Monday.